Silver Lined Clouds
by Barrybumhead
Summary: Every cloud has a silver lining...no matter how dark it is...


Silver Lined Clouds

* * *

Chapter I

* * *

Dire Times…

The UNSC is looking into a pitch black cloud…

They still don't realized the silver lining…

What doesn't kill you…

…Makes you stronger

* * *

 **November 6** **th** **, 2553 [UNSC Standard Calendar]**

 **Earth.**

 **United Kingdom.**

It's dire times. The future is looking pretty bleak, Reach, the UNSC's capital, the fortress in the stars. The planet was home to 13.7 billion people, now it was a lifeless, glowing hot rock. Some got out however, they went to this place called Installation 04. Only to find it was containing a threat 3 times at bad as the dam Covenant.

The survivors of the Fall of Reach and the Battle on Installation 04 or Halo received promotions a few months ago. On that day even the most "by the book" officers got drunk when High Admiral Hood gave out medals to Sargent Avery Johnson, Commander Miranda Keys and of course John 117, the Master Chief. I was on the station the medals were being handed out on, Cairo Station, one of the many SMACs or Super Magnetic Accelerator Cannons. SMACs are able to shoot 3000 ton-gram slugs of pure metal alloy at 12,000 kilometers per second or 4% light speed every 5 seconds, able to destroy anything.

And here I was, safe as I thought I could get in these dire times. The planet Earth was the Capital of the Human race, protected from a fleet of over a thousand, and hundreds of SMACs. Even after Reach fell, Earth will _never_ fall. So I thought, now look at me, I have no ammo left for my battle rifle and my heads up display ((HUD) only showed me having 4 bullets left in my last pistol magazine.

"This day just keeps getting worse by the minute." I whisper to myself

Running into a nearby hotel for cover I hear UNSC forces talking, taking out the last 3 grunts with the remaining pistol ammo, I spin around and investigate further.

"Oi who's there!?" I yell.

2 UNSC Army soldiers jump out with, one without a helmet, armed with a shotgun, and the other with a UNSC cap on and armed with an assault rifle. "Who the fuck are you? And what are you doing trying to get the covenant to come here with your fucking loud-ass mouth."

"Sargent William Bradford, ODST Special Forces." I quickly reply.

"I'm Sargent Major Adams, this is Corporal Anderson. Do you have a radio?" Sargent Major Adams asked.

"No sir."

"Ok, well I don't know if you heard but the covenant have a fleet of over 2500 strong, we are currently evacuating. We have 5 pelicans on the way here but-"

"Evacuating!? This is Earth, we can't leave it so it can just be glassed like the rest!" I Shout, there is no way we can abandon Earth, it's our home!

"Stand down soldier! They have already started to glass it, they haven't even bothered to try to take out our fleet. Only the ships that get to close!" he sighed. "Now we're leaving, if you want to die on Earth then be my guest, but we will need soldiers if we are going to get revenge on those fuckers. Got it?"

I just stood there, this was all too much…but he had a point. And I did like the idea of revenge.

"…Yes Sir" I slowly handing over the radio.

"We will be fine kid. Humanity will prevail."

I sighed feeling a little better, if only the tiniest bit. Standing up straight, I give a crisp salute. "Dam straight Sir."

Walking into the room were the rest were he realized that most people here were civilians. Walking to the balcony to act as over watch, I grabbed an ammo box and sat down, slowly I started to refill my battle rifle magazines. The Battle rifle has been my weapon ever since I was made an ODST 4 years ago. The battle rifle was a three round burst rifle that accurate at all ranges. The battle rifle had few mods, a shorter barrel, and suppresser/flash hider, longer range scope, recoil dampener and finally 2 drum magazines that could hold 40 rounds each, good for when you need to turn the rifle modes from burst-fire to automatic. I figure if this gun is my life, then I may as well make it the best it can be.

My pistol on the other hand wasn't as heavily modified, it didn't really need to be modified. The SCOM spec-ops silenced/flash-hiding magnum, only mods I added to it was a holo-sight and a better flashlight.

Finally after double checking my weapons and reloading all my mags that I didn't leave behind. I took off my helmet, and scuffled my jet black hair. And started to clean my knife, the knife I had was a custom built titanium knife in the shape of an old bayonet knife. I am…well…was, the heavy assault soldier in my squad

"This is it, Earth is gone. What now?" Said a voice behind me. Turning around to find a small girl, dried blood all over and her clothes ripped to pieces with burn marks all other.

"I don't know kid….where are your parents?"

She looked down too her rags. Slowly she points to the dried blood. "They're here. They…they…" Her eyes started to water, and she now started to wobble. I grab her arms and steady her.

"Hey, you're going to be fine ok? What's your name?" I ask. I want to make sure she doesn't cry, half because I care about people and half because I just can't deal with annoying background sound with a war on and stuff.

"Isabel" she mumbled through suppressed attempts to cry.

"Ok Isabel, I know you're scared and sad and probably angry at the things that did this. But know this, you're still alive and that means that you have a future, fight for that future. I need you to stay strong ok, you're going to be ok."

She just nodded, leaning to see past me, She gasps and makes a massive grin "Look!" she pointed to the pelicans coming.

"Oi pelicans are almost here, everyone get ready, get into groups of 16!" I hear Sergeant Major Adams yell. "Come on, let's go, go, go!"

 _A few hour earlier_

* * *

 **February 7** **th** **, 2552 [UNSC Standard Calendar]**

 **High-orbit, Earth.**

 **UNSC Valiant-Class Super-Heavy Cruiser, UNSC** _ **Interdictor.**_

Fleet Admiral Terrance Hood stood on the deck of the UNSC _Interdictor_ , the temporary flagship for the Earth defense fleet and one of the only famous Valiant-Classes still operational. From here the Admiral has command of all UNSC ships and troops, on and around Earth. A few months ago the surviving members from the UNSC _Pillar of Autumn_ were given medals and congratulated for their grueling fight for survival on Instillation 04, however the Covenant was still out there. On the way back to Earth the Master Chief and the rest of Blue Team blow up the _Unyielding Hierophant_ and the fleet of over 500 guarding it. But the Covenant still knows were Earth is and Hood knew that the Covenant would be preparing the largest fleet to completely decimate the last remaining stronghold of humanity.

The bridge of the UNSC _Interdictor_ was as colorful as any other thing made by the UNSC…grey…followed with more grey, however the multitude of blue screens did add some life. The bridge was filled with tactical read outs of fleet numbers, military material (tanks, weapons etc.), Admiral Hood stood on a raised platform overlooking the _Interdictor_ 's main workstations. Hood looked to each one.

Sitting on the communications station was First Lieutenant Stephen Ven. Stephen was a bit short standing at 5f 6, he had short scruffy hair with dark green eyes. He also looked quite weak and frail but Hood knew that he still could use a weapon effectively as he noticed that Stephen almost always spent his spare time in the ships weapon range, practicing with everything from a basic standard issue magnum to a heavy duty-high caliber sniper rifle. Stephen one of the only survivors from the Reach Defense Fleet. He served as the Captain of the UNSC Frigate _Dystopian Dream_ he would have continued to serve as the Captain as the vessel if he didn't cut and run instead of fighting to the last man in defense of Reach. At the end of the day the only thing it got him was demoted and him losing commanding of his ship, but Hood knew that he was a good man and was only doing what he thought was best for his crew so hood offered him a place on board the _Interdictor_.

Ensign Brynn Teresa, a dark skinned woman with her black hair in a ponytail, she is in charge of the weapons station. She is an ex-insurrectionist, her bright blue eyes screamed experience, when the covenant war started she offered Intel of insurrectionist bases in exchange for a position where she can help fight with the Covenant. So far she has shown to be loyal to UNSC and has been an excellent officer, she would be a much higher rank if she wasn't an ex-insurrectionist.

Finally in charge of navigations was Lieutenant Junior Elishka May. A pale lady with long red hair and dark blue eyes, not many people knew much about her. Hood on the other hand knows that she is with the Office of Naval Intelligence and she is onboard to keep a close eye on Brynn, after all the insurrectionist were terrorists, using fear and attacking civilians to send their message.

After making himself a mobile command center onboard the UNSC _Interdictor_ , Fleet Admiral Hood had been making every effort to prepare Earth for the coming storm. The Earth defense fleet had bolstered with newly made ships from the Robert McLee's and Misriah Armory shipyards over Mars. Frigates and corvettes were being pumped out as fast as people were being recruited…which was quite slowly. No one truly believed that Earth could fall, not with 2nd biggest fleet ever assembled by humanity, not 127 Orbital Defense Platforms/super MACs in orbit. Unfortunately morale was very low after the Fall of Reach so Admiral Hood wasn't going to risk using recruitment tactics such reminding people of the loss of planets and population.

"Sir, I'm reading slip space ruptures…this-this can't be right. Oh no! Covenant fleet of 68 corvettes just exited slip-space in-atmosphere! They are spilt up 5 in every major city. They sure did their homework!" Said Aella. The Interdictor resident Artificial Intelligence, her avatar was of a noble Greek woman. Dawned in robes and a single plate of armor hung on her shoulder. Her avatar was a glistening golden colour, full of life, just like her personality.

Hood spun on the word Covenant. "Can we fire with the Super MACs?"

"Ah! Not unless you want to crack the continental plate underneath the target. A Super MAC round would just go straight though a corvette." Replied Aella, her avatar frowning.

Earth wasn't a military based world so Earth had limited ground-based anti-ship weaponry like Reach did, however Earth still has nuclear ICBMs from the Cold War. Unfortunately due to the corvettes being so close to the cities hood would be ordering the deaths of millions if not billions of people as cities were well within the blast radius.

"Do a full scan of the solar system. 68 corvettes wouldn't be all there is." Hood thought. There was no way that the Covenant would attack Humanities home-world with a fleet of 68 of their weakest starships.

"…Done. I have a faint reading of a Covenant fleet are in orbit of Mars. Yup they look like that their fleet is currently glassing the planet. Specifically the industrial and military complexes. "

"Glassing? Why would they start to glass Mars befor-"

"This is Fleet Admiral Harper! We are moving to engage the corvettes."

"Negative! The main fleet is currently glassing Mars, we can't spilt the fleet and leave us weak when the main fleet attacks." Replied Admiral Hood. "Their trying to lure us out." He continued.

Admiral Hood didn't truly know if the fleet over mars was the main fleet, but it would make a lot of sense as the Covenant would attack with the corvettes in atmosphere where we can't fire the Super MACs. This would have to decide if we want to attack the corvettes with our fleet, which would spilt the fleet making us weak then attack us. Or the fleet over Earth can hold position and stay strong, but have thousands of civilians die per second. It seemed that the Covenant had a good tactical commander in charge.

"Sir the Covenant seem to be just glassing industrial zones on mars. They could be done and jumping here at any time! I suggest we send out prowlers and set a nuclear mine field just outside the Super MAC effective range." Called Aella. Her "lively" personality seeming to be cast aside for a more a serious tone.

"Do it."

Admiral Hood finally had a break. The Battle for Earth has started and it was already way to frantic for his liking. A good 10 minutes pasted before Aella had another update. Hood just hoped that the battle on the ground was holding steady.

"Slip-space rupture at Mars they are moving towards Earth! A say 5 minutes till they arrive!" Aella practically screamed out.

"Tell the fleet to get into formation and have the Super MACs ready. How is the nuclear mine field coming along?"

"They report that 47 Havoc-Class nuclear mines are in position and awaiting detonation commands." Reported Aella.

"Good, tell them to get the hell out of there and send the command codes to my personal command console."

"Done" Aella replied. "Wait Covenant fleet exited slip-space. Warning fleet is 657 ships strong! I'm reading 5 CCO-Class Super Carriers! Tagging them as highest priority for Super MACs."

"Good, all fleets wait in defensive formation around the Super MACs. Wait for them to come into our firing range then hit them with everything you got, stay in formation until further orders. Harper have your frigates go down at take out those Covenant corvettes."

"Aye sir! UNSC frigates you heard the man! Charge MACs and arm missiles, I'll be assigning 3 frigates for every corvette so pay attention to what other frigates you're linked with. Also have any AIs you have to link up and provide targeting solutions for maximum effect."

"Sir the Covenant seem to have not notice our nuclear mines the best time to detonate them for maximum damage would be right now."

"Good, Thank you Aella." Opening the coms to the whole fleet, Hood announced. "All ships prepare for a nuclear weapon detonation, so prepare for blinding light as well as an EMP wave." Admiral Hood said, after waiting a ten seconds for everyone to prepare as he pressed the command codes for the nuclear mines to go off.

A flash erupted consuming the view of the huge Covenant fleet. As the wave of energy pasted by the Covenant ships, their golden energy shielding was torn apart, their very hulls liquefying and turning into plasma as the blast as hot as the surface of the sun boiled the ships. The bigger Covenant frigates, cruisers and carriers survived the ordeal, but at the cost of their shielding. Making them easy targets for the resulting volley of Super Magnetic Accelerator Cannon and lighter ship based MAC fire, the streams of bright white flashed across space slamming into targets with the power of freight train hitting a brick wall at full speed. The ship based MACs needed two shots to take out a frigate, but a Super MAC needed no such help. Admiral Hood noticed some Super MAC shots hitting their target with the shot following though and taking out another ship behind.

"Enemy status report" Hood called still holding his hand over his eyes to block the light that was as bright as a star.

"Enemy fleet is currently 417 strong. All their corvettes and light frigates have been destroyed, heavy frigates have been halved in number and we have taken out 6 assault carriers and heavily damaged a, if not completely crippled a single super carrier."

"240 ships destroyed. Not early enough." Hood said, placing his hand of his chin. Even with a supercarrier out of play the Covenant still had a fleet easily able to destroy the Earth Defense Fleet and glass Earth. He hoped to take out more ships with the surprise attack.

"Covenant ships moving towards the Orbital Defense Platforms. Their charging weapons." Aella reported, Hood could see what see their weapons charging. The Covenant ships lateral lines of plasma weapons visibly charging up with an angry red slowly turning to a blinding bright white. Suddenly the pure white plasma couldn't be contained and hundreds of thousands of hot tear shaped plasma shot forward, burning through meters of titanium plating in seconds as the ships hit vented atmosphere in an attempt to stem the tide of molten plasma.

Upon seeing 36 ships having been destroyed Hood's mind went into overdrive, determined to not let those brave men and woman to die in vain. "Weapons officer Brynn, charge both MACs and arm archer missile pods from A1 through to D12. Communications officer Stephen ask where the fleet admiral needs us then tell navigations officer Elishka were to go. And Aella, tell all our longsword interceptor squadrons to suit up and be ready in a moment's notice." A wave of yes sirs was called as everyone turned around to follow their orders.

* * *

 **February 6** **th** **, 2553 [UNSC Standard Calendar]**

 **In-Orbit. Earth.**

 **UNSC Marathon-Class Heavy Cruiser, UNSC** _ **Withering Dawn**_ **.**

Now onboard the pelican dropship we are on our way to the UNSC Marathon-class heavy cruiser named _Withering Dawn_ , an appropriate name I suppose. Walking out of the pelican, I started to walk to the bridge after learning that I was the highest ranking ODST onboard. The other 2 marines were taken to a different ship.

"Sir, Sargent William Bradford ODST Special Forces, reporting for duty."

The captain of the ship turned around, revealing a man aged around his forties with a large scar starting from the lower right jaw up to his eye brow above his right eye.

"Sargent Bradford, I'm Captain Nathen. All forces are ordered to retreat to the UNSC Infinity all forces are leaving this side of the galaxy. We will uses the forerunner slip-space drive on the UNSC Infinity to leave to the other side of the galaxy, and we will rebuilt… and then take Earth back."

"Wait, I'm sorry sir…but UNSC Infinity? Forerunners!? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't worry Bradford, we have time to explain later. For now just relax, we just lost Earth and billions of people with it so for now please just relax."

"Relax?! Billions of people just died and now you're telling me to just don't worry about it?!"

"….I don't know what to say ok. Earth was my home too ok? And right now we need a new home and the UNSC Infinity is the best way to provide it. I need you to take it easy losing Earth would be quite damaging to anyone's mental state, especially after you were just down there. Please just rest ok? We need soldiers like you now more then ever! Is that understood? "

"Yes, Sir" I hesitantly replied, giving a weak salute.

"Good." Returning the salute. He patted my shoulder, "It will be fine ok?"

Walking out the bridge I head towards the ships armory, I went through my usual rounds after a mission. First up was taking my armor off and changing into my ODST off duty uniform, next was making sure my armor was still up to scratch, looked all good 'may have to repaint it though' I think to myself. Next in line was weapon cleaning, luckily I had my weapons

* * *

 **May 19** **th** **, 2554 [UNSC Standard Calendar]**

 **Far edge of Sol system, Oort cloud.**

 **UNSC Infinity-Class, UNSC** _ **Infinity**_

Admiral Hood stood on the bridge of the incomplete UNSC _Infinity_ , It has been 1 year from when Earth fell, what's left of humanity is still in the Oort cloud, the Oort cloud is a dust/asteroid cloud located on the far edge of the solar system, just far enough for the covenant not to look and just close enough for the UNSC remnant to keep an eye on Earth. For some reason the covenant have been digging around New Mombasa, no one knew why though.

"Sorry to interrupt you from your thoughts, but I am about 99 percent sure that all available ships are repaired and reporting for duty."

Hood turned around to find Cortana "Sitting" on the main holo-table. When the remaining UNSC forces retreated to the Oort cloud, Admiral Hood told Cortana to send a heavily encrypted message telling that Earth has been glassed, and to stop whatever they were doing and regroup in the Oort cloud. The encrypted message could only be opened 2 ways, a very long time of decrypting or answering the password "Who was the first man on the moon?" Not a question the Covenant had the answer to. However the Covenant could find a library, but considering the number of inner colonies that have been glassed and the serving outer colonies were underdeveloped to start with. Hood didn't consider that a real possibility.

Most ships that got to the Oort cloud were poorly outdated UNSCDF (United Nations Space Command Defense Force) ships from the outer colonies, but what surprised the Admiral the most is that the old UNSC rebels, infamous for attacks on UNSC and any civilians that were even remotely related to the UNSC, came to join forces. Even civilians got together and took whatever ships docked at their colony, welding scrape metals on the hull to act as armor, some even went to the length to take apart their colonies defensive structures at night and rebuilt them in the ships.

These "Zombie" ships as the UNSC officers were calling them were now being given top of the line armor and weapons. The civilians were more than eager to serve, so now they were being trained the basic UNSC warfare tactics and logistics and operating systems.

Everyone knew the mission, regain strength then retreat to deep space, find a new home world and take our true home world back. Everyone knew what was at stake, the continued existence of the Human race. With this new determination things have been going fantastic, new military technology has been coming non-stop as well as the building of the UNSC infinity and rearming of all the old ships. The original plan for the UNSC infinity was that it was going to be a massive ship armed to the teeth and be strong enough for the UNSC to stand toe to toe with the Covenant. Now however it had over 8 million people onboard and all the missiles lunch bays, mass accelerator cannons and deck guns have been taken out in favor for areas to grow crops for the whole fleet. In other words the _Infinity_ was now a city in space. A far cry from that it would be in another universe.

'Oh right, Cortana was saying something wasn't she?' Hood thought turning around to see her still "sitting" on the main holo-table. "Sorry Cortana I missed that."

She sighed. "All ships are repaired and reporting for duty sir. Also I am detecting a new slip-space anomaly that appears to be coming from behind the Oort cloud. Most likely a Human ship as my message told them to come behind the Oort cloud to stop the Covenant from seeing them."

Hood placed a hand on his chin, thinking the possibilities from this, a UNSC fleet? More Civilians? Rebels? Maybe...The Covenant? Please no god. "There is no way the covenant know about this place, but still prepare for the worse in case."

"Hood look!" Cortana suddenly said, Hood turned to look at the forward screen, the screen showed a UNSC fleet exiting the light blue slip-space portal. This however wasn't the normal beat up old UNSC ships that have been arriving lately, no this fleet was being led by a Valiant-Class Super Heavy Cruiser. Flanked by four, FOUR! Halcyon-Class Light Cruisers behind them were 2 Orion-Assault Carriers next to them were 4 Phoenix-Class Assault Carriers and front of the fleet a line formation of over 50 frigates. "Admiral we have an incoming transmission from the new UNSC Fleet."

Who the hell are these people? Where did they come from? A surviving UNSC strong hold? Those questions hopefully would be answered now. The Admiral straighten his uniform and ran his hand though his hair. "Patch it through."

The live video loaded, Admiral Hood was shocked. The Admiral was looking at one of the greatest war heroes of recent history, the man that was in charge of the biggest fleet known to mankind. The man that was on the scale of tactical genius of Sun Tzu. This man, This Admiral was humanities greatest asset, greatest hero, and greatest symbol of the persistence to live and fight.

The Captain of the legendary UNSC _Everest._

Admiral Preston J. Cole.

* * *

Just as the UNSC _Everest_ contacted the UNSC _Infinity_ , dark purple swirls ruptured into existence, their very presents is distorting time and space, soon ships came out…purple ships. With this information Admiral Hood started to coordinate all 648 ships into a defensive formation around the _Infinity_ , if Infinity was even hit then humanity's chance at survival was going to be hit hard. As the Covenant ships started to come closer and closer Hood saw that the Covenant fleet numbered in the thousands, it would be impossible for Admiral Hood to win this battle even with Admiral Cole's reinforcements.

The Oort cloud was full of mineral rich asteroids, so when they are mined out Hood made the decision to build mini-MACs on the husks as cheap defense platforms. Admiral Hood had hoped to never use them, but now he would have to. Each Mini-MAC station was equipped with 3 Mini-MACs with 4 people on board, 3 to shoot and 1 to give orders.

Admiral Hood stared at the Covenant fleet, two options laid before him. Option 1, make one final stand and most likely have humanity extinct or option 2, accelerate the Home Plan. The current plan the UNSC has is wait in the Oort cloud and rearm and repaired while waiting for anyone to come to reinforce their numbers. Then after waiting for 2 years then go as far away from the Covenant as possible to find a new home and rebuild.

Looks like option 2 was the best choice. "Communications officer Stephen, I need to speak to the whole fleet including Cole's fleet. Make it happen!"

Hood could see him typing away on his station, most likely getting Cortana to help him with the task, after a few seconds longer he turned to Hood announcing. "Sir! Fleet wide com channel is now linked to your console."

Hood nodded and looked to his console, clearing his throat he pressed the button. "All ships this is Admiral Hood. It's time to enact the next fraise of our plan early. It's time to go as far away from the Orion arm of the galaxy as possible and build a new home. Some of you may know this but for those who don't know, the UNSC _Infinity_ is equipped with a hyper advanced Slip-space generator. The _Infinity_ will open a huge portal for everyone to go through, however we can't have it open for long as the Infinity has to leave. Good luck people and see you on the other side! Hood out."

"Helm, open the biggest slip-space portal you possibly can."

"Aye, Sir."

Cortana's avatar appeared next to Hoods console. With a hand on her hip, looking as sassy as per usual. "You know that the forerunner drive isn't fully developed…right?"

"I know, but Doctor Halsey says it should work."

"Should? That sounds great! So when it fails then the whole fleet and die as well as their coming with us! Fantastic, just fantastic."

"Now is not the time Cortana! How long can we maintain the portal?"

"20 minutes at the most."

The Oort cloud turned into a light show as flashes of white light from MAC guns and a mix of blue and red plasma lances raged through out space. Ships raced to intercept deadly plasma torpedoes, sacrificing their lives to stop them from hitting the _Infinity_.

"Umm…ok something is wrong with the slip-space drive!" Cortana reported.

"What!?" Hood responded, he was already in a fight for his and his entire race's existence. Another thing to worry about is not what he needed.

"Look! The slip-space portal is sucking everything in around it. Most UNSC ships are inside! We're going in, hope you put your seatbelt on."

And just like that nearly every ship around the portal was sucked in. Just after the Infinity was pulled through the portal that travels through time, space and dimensions collapsed.

A small starship looked at a new found debris field, after closer inspection into an impossibly large vessel, somehow in English no less read the words _**UNSC INFINITY**_.

* * *

After the rain….

…A rainbow appears


End file.
